For me, other than one big issue, Sherwood is doing reasonably well, especially in making progress towards finding our starting lineup and style of play. (The one thing is the high line, which I've gone over too many times already; we looked so much more comfortable against Benfica when their fullbacks had a little space in their end, and we started pressing them when they crossed into ours; we don't have the fullbacks for the high line, quite aside from anything else.) I'll disagree with others about Townsend. He wasn't great by any means, but he worries defenders with his dribbling, which is also fun to watch. Lennon and Chadli also, again, looked lively and threatening. Gylfi was a pleasant surprise, though he has the virtues he's always had: decent, not great, wherever he plays, with the virtue of having a really dangerous, strong shot. I'm beginning to think Dembele and Paulinho (my two favorite players) are the odd men out, and should be sold to get the best deep lying playmaker on wheels, maybe with Lamela and Vertonghen going as well to get us one more top class wide man (as an upgrade to Townsend; we've got two good ones but could really use a spectacular one)--or possibly, just possibly, one more striker on the theory that either Ade or Soldado won't be available. We're strong in central players, both CBs (Chiriches and Kaboul) and CM/#10s, with Eiriksen, Chadli, Gylfi and potentially Holtby. Oh, yeah, I'm getting ready to admit we need a new LB as well. Rose has been awful the last couple of games.
I've been unable to type because I just couldn't stop happy-clapping. Watch the game again: STREAM: http://www.footballorgin.com/2014/03/premier-league-2013-2014-tottenham_23.html
'Sky sources' have revealed that Tim gave the team a massive incentive to win at half time. He sent Naughton to the toilets and said 'Lads, if you win this game I promise I won't play him again' Great day all round.
One thing that stands out is that, yesterday, Sherwood was wearing a suit rather than his usual body warmer. Now, if I were a sports psychologist, I'd say this was him hiding behind a suit to try and look like he has authority rather than him actually having any - which is exactly what they were saying in the last days of Christian Gross.
Can somebody please explain the current interpretation of the offside rule to me? I have no idea why Southampton's second goal yesterday was allowed to stand, yet Jermain Defoe's at Anfield a couple of years ago was chalked off. An offside player distracts Naughton who then passes it to another offside player and yet they're not interfering? Defoe was penalised after two Liverpool players had touched the ball, but Southampton aren't penalised after only one has? There's no consistency and the officials seem to be making this phase of play bollocks up as they go along.
Andros Townsend has taken the piss out of Kevin Philips, following his dubious punditry of yesterday's game, posting the following on Twitter: "Shoutout to yesterday's match winning goalscorer siluf gudjersson @Caulker4." For anyone wondering what the hell he's on about, here's a clip: [video=youtube;0v0LyujHb0E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v0LyujHb0E[/video] Even Pleat would've got closer than that!
Defoe's was wrongly ruled out by a spineless, bottle job ref. Webb wasn't it? I think that might have been the same game where Crouch got pulled penalised for having his shirt pulled. You're right though, there's no consistency, refs are allowed to pick and choose how they interpret laws as they please. I don't understand why everyone's getting all bothered about the freak accident where the wrong player got sent off, it overlooks the real problem of the bad decisions refs are giving every week.
Also, were Southampton fans singing "we sing our own songs" followed by "oh when the Saints" yesterday? Do they seriously not realise that it's not their song?
Yep, same game. Kyrgiakos with a two handed shirt pull on Crouch from behind in their box, which resulted in a free-kick to Liverpool. He was shockingly bad. We don't even sing the same version as them.
Pretty sure that they were doing to slow version yesterday, although they didn't actually continue it into the faster version like we do.
Sad but true. You can see that he reacts to the player and makes his second big screw up of the day, though.
The fact that the referees are so awful is one fact. That nobody seems to take the rule book seriously is another one. The second, to me, is even worse than the first. Last year, why was the shirt pull against Ade against Everton, which prevented him from getting an inviting ball in the box, not penalized, whereas one against Arsenal the same weekend was? "It's not always called." But if it is called sometimes, and not others, aren't you telling the refs to just step in and decide games any way they feel like, depending on what they had for breakfast that morning or who picked up the tab? I mean seriously a shirt pull is a fairly discrete behavior. Sure, there are borderline cases, which may be difficult to judge, but a garden variety shirt pull, surely, should be a pen 100% of the time. Don't say, "There would be a penalty on every corner." There would be a pen on the first two or three corners, yes. Then everyone would stop it. An astute analysis. As a veteran superstitioiologist, I immediately assumed he realized the track suit and the Michelin man jacket weren't getting him the good juju anymore, and it was time for extreme measures.
The media are reporting that a 57-year-old Southampton fan was reported by two of his fellow supporters for anti-Semitic abuse during the game. He was arrested, charged and bailed. Nice to see the police going after the right people on this issue for once and good to see that some opposition fans won't stand for that kind of crap. Well done to those Saints fans.
